It is ashame what John McCain has allow himself to become, he once was a man who people respected, now all they see is a bitter old man, who has made a fool of himself. And people will never forget him selecting something like that Sarah Palin as his running mate in 08.

The Wall Street hedge fund managers who run the company have squeezed every cent out of Hostess for eight years. And they’ve put their friends with no experience in the baking industry in high-level management positions.

Hostess workers believe in their company, and we need to stand with them—sign our pledge to support workers, not greedy CEOs who will cut and run for a quick buck.

What’s happening here is a classic Bain Capital-style assault—blame the little guy to cover the greedy corporate policies that are gutting the middle class.

Thanks for posting this, GGail. I just received my email from AFL-CIO concerning this one. Signed the petition in support. This is how we get on these issues immediately. That is where our support comes in full blast this time around.

I am sooooooooooooooooo sorry. I did something incorrect in posting the site to sign the petition. Will someone help me please. I just wanted to share the site that GGail posted. Rescue 2 Seniors, please.HZ

Could Michelle Obama be any prettier? Nope. I wish she was travelling with the Pres. They make such a striking couple. AQs to John McCain…he definitely needs that proctology exam that Haley Barbour recommended. He sure does have something up his butt.

Yes, she is such a beautiful and graceful First Lady. We pray that she and POTUS will have some lovely travelling in days, weeks, months, and years to come. We are so blessed to have both of them serving as our POTUS and FLOTUS..HZ

The most striking photo for me was the one on the Senate floor where the photographers were all zooming in on then-Senator Obama, instead of the witnesses. Prescient. It was also good to see the actual context of some of these pictures we’ve seen for years – like the ones in Kenya and on the safari.

For some reason I didn’t cry on election night – I was elated and calm at the same time. But since then, every little picture or video brings tears. I’m going to have to buy one of the dvds so I can watch it forever!

Oh my gosh, what a whirlwind. First, I feel nothing but disgust for the talking heads but then that gives way to sheer joy –> VICTORY and brilliance of our POTUS in his grand speech!!!! ABsolutely THRILLING!!!!

I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America. And together, with your help and God’s grace, we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth. Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.

Maryl, Bobfr, theo67, meta, GGail, and susanne, I am crying all over my computer. I am so elated again, and again. I was so touched aagin as President Obama said at the end of his speech, “And with your help and God’s Grace..” President Barack Obama, 44th did it again!!! Lovely indeed.

Every time I see clips of the election night like this one I choke up again. Thankfully, my tears on Nov. 4th 2008 and Nov. 6th, 2012, were tears of joy. To be honest, I never thought I would live long enough to witness such monumental history making twice. The last time I shed tears after an election was in 1972 when that good man George McGovern was crushed by Richard Nixon. For some of us young people at the time, McGovern embodied the hopes and aspirations that had been derailed by the assassination of MLK and and RFK. Those were tears of pain and total despair.

Many thanks to you Donna, Chipsticks, and all the hard working people both on on this site, and throughout the country, who never lost faith in the President and never entertained the idea of quitting before the job was done.

elizabeth warren’s email asks us to sign a petition for filibuster reform:

‘ On the first day of the new session in January, the Senate will have a unique opportunity to change the filibuster rule with a simple majority vote, rather than the normal two-thirds vote. The change can be modest: If someone objects to a bill or a nomination in the United States Senate, they should have to stand on the floor of the chamber and defend their opposition. No more ducking responsibility for bringing the work of this country to a dead stop. ‘

Exactly, df. And there will be so many instances when we can leverage that technology.

One of the most important aspects, from my perspective, comes from reflecting on how easy the Call Tool was to use and now think about thousands and thousands of folk who could be calling on matters such as filibuster reform, repealing Citizens United, the next SCOTUS appointment, etc. As folk are making those calls, the system would keep track of who called whom and can then enable folk to call the same person again on a new issue. That’s when ‘social media’ truly begins enabling relationships – voices become familiar – community begins to form. Countless micro-social networks would be forming and people will begin having a sense of connectedness that can breath life into our democracy on a scale and intensity never seen before.

All the tools, the hard work creating them – those are assets. Now, rather than having those assets languish, they need to be enriched by use and further refinement.

If President Obama and folk like Pfeiffer, Axelrod, Messina, Burton, etc., enable the extension and expansion of those assets they will not merely win various legislative and electoral battles (2014 Congress, State Governorships, etc) but they will educate and motivate citizens to become exactly what the President began reflecting in his campaign speeches in VA, CO, OH & IA in the final 2 days – that in a democracy, it’s about ‘You’ – the People to make the decisions about what future We the People want for the USA.

I’m right there with you, baby! I can see the practical and unmistakable power of these techno tools! They shouldn’t sit around collecting dust just because the election is over. There is a much wider application for them now, then ever before!

Bobfr, this is an excerpt from our ranking leader of OFA CA of the explanation regarding Dashboard & Votebuilder information…

“The entire staff also had their VoteBuilder and Dashboard accounts deactivated. Most are already off staff, and the rest of us will be on Thursday. I believe that there are legal reasons behind the deactivation of accounts, in terms of what entity owns the databases and how they are allowed to be used. There is an enormous amount of sensitive personal information in the database and it doesn’t make sense that it would just continue to be available in an unregulated fashion without a distinct purpose. There are legal issues regarding how the information in the database can be used (e.g. the VoteBuilder ‘committee’ that we had access to at OFA could not legally be used by a congressional campaign).”

I was wondering about the legal constraints since POTUS has to steer clear of campaign frameworks and therefore the data collected therein. So I’m guessing that’s what THE ACTION movement is all about.

Elizabeth is joining in on this as my Senator Merkley and others had asked me earlier and emailed me it was in the works before the election. I signed his petition. Glad Elizabeth is joining in on the fight. I contributed to her campaign even though I am in Oregon.

I WILL see it……just don’t know when. My husband said he wants to see it. Every time we see a trailer or anything else, he comments he wants to see it. I’m sure he won’t see the comparison to PO that I will though. :(

Personally, I think action or adventure movies are best seen on the big screen, and everything else works even better in the comfort of your own home where you can cry, laugh out loud or pause to replenish the popcorn bowl, as needed. James Bond – big screen. Lincoln – comfy couch at home…

Meta, you are so right. Being that Gabby just came out of court and having to revisit that awful day, this is like an angel placing sweet and healing kisses upon her sweet, brilliant, and peaceful spirit. This is such a lift to all of our spirits.
((((((((((((((((((((((( Hugs and spirits of goodness going forth for Gabby and Mark.)))))))))))))))))))))))

Desertflower, thanks for posting this here for all to enjoy. It is an excellent piece written beautifully about our POTUS. Michael Lewis wrote with great style, vivid expression, and respect to our POTUS.

Enjoyed it in my issue of Vanity Fair Oct. 2012. A must read for our TOD family.

Thanks DF for sharing this. By the way, here is my take as to why McCain and other Republicans are trying to conflate the Benghazi tagedy into a scandal. You see, It was President Obama who helped the Libyan people to get rid of the dictator Gaddafi who had oppressed them for four decades. The Republican St. Ronnie had tried and failed. All St. Ronie Regan could boast about is that is that he killed Gaddafi’s one year old daughter. Only a fool can believe the absurdity that President Obama would give aid and comfort to Al-Qaida in Libya when he is busy killing its leaders in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and other places.

Thank you desertflower for posting this. I read it all the way thru and was sorry when it ended. So much to deal with and still remain true to who you are. Loved seeing his throught process in problem solving.

Someone should explain to Mark Knoller that the President rides in comfort because he has to greet and lead the world as soon as he gets off the plane. Mark Knoller simply gets to deceive the world as soon as he gets off the plane. One is clearly more important than the other…

Today I received my copy of Scout’s book Yes We Can. So far I have flipped through the pictures rather quickly. Some time tomorrow I will sit down and also read the text and closely study it. I could remember so many of those days, even four years later. I just feel so fortunate to live in this once in history time.
I mentioned to my husband today, that the President now looks so relaxed and happy, and I’m sure he is glad that all he has to do now is run the world!!! Which is what he does, in a way. My husband was commenting on the fight between the Palestinians and Israelis, and we think that they decided this would be a good time while the President was busy on the campaign. Now, he is free to act. I firmly know the world is a safer place than it was four years ago.

PBO’s trip to Thailand reminds me of my travel trip there in a group travel vacation around ten years ago. We also went to Myanmar and Laos. I do remember our guide on our bus in Bangkok telling us we could ask whatever questions we wanted on the bus but to not do it out of the bus as their government was very strict. My daughter was studying advanced law in Singapoore at the time and since she had done an earlier internship in Thailand she came over to join me for my four days in Bangkok.

The travel group gave us hotel cards with directions back to the hotel we could use in a cab since most people did not speak English there. I had gone with my daughter to a mall on a Friday night on the skytrain (can’t remember what they called it). It was such a frightening experience since they pack themselves in pushing people in and out of it that I was lucky we weren’t separated. I elected to take a taxi home with her after we spent time in the mall (which is very different than ours). The taxi driver could not read so the card we were given did not help. My daughter could communicate with him with a few words and arm signals from having been to Bangkok several times from her six months living there otherwise I would probably still be riding around in that taxi.

I want to visit Asia, but I have to admit, the language barrier scares me so I’d be stuck staying in the very modern cities, and would miss out on the real experience. Sounds harrowing! But, at least now you have a good story to tell! :)

// Even McKayla Maroney was impressed. A photo of the Olympic gold medalist gymnast and President Barack Obama doing her now-famous “McKayla Maroney is not impressed” face went viral Saturday after the White House posted it on Twitter. The two took the picture Thursday when Maroney and her Fierce Five teammates visited the White House.

“He was the one who brought it up,” Maroney told The Associated Press. “We were about to leave and he said, ‘I want to talk to you one second about the face.’ He said, ‘I pretty much do that face at least once a day.'” The “face” has become Maroney’s trademark. But it’s one thing for fans to ask her about it, quite another when the president does. “I, like, freaked out,” Maroney said. “He said, ‘Let’s do it together.’ We took a picture and now it’s everywhere.”

The Fierce Five had talked to President Obama in London, where they became just the second U.S. women’s team to win the Olympic title, and first since 1996. But it was neat to meet him in person, Maroney said. “He’s the coolest person I ever met,” she said — which is saying something, considering the Fierce Five have hobnobbed with a Who’s Who of celebrities since London. “He’s got the hardest job in the entire world.” //

on the one hand, i’m cheering for the triumph of twinkies. on the other, i’m pretty sure the demise of these heart-attack snacks is not a bad thing. reading the article, i feel very sad for folks in mexico, who have seen their traditional tortillas replaced by commercial white bread.

This man is tedious! He whines about everything. My husband, the psychologist, classifies him as a malignant narcissist…..one who hurts others. He says what Romney has suffered is a “narcissistic wound” and will never take any responsibility for the loss. He will blame everybody else. We should keep track of all the people and entities he’s blamed. This blaming his loss on the debates is not his first.
He will lick his wounds for the rest of his life, and also try to impose his will on the Republican party.
Those guys in Vegas didn’t have a clue. Did they not see the disconnect of trying to diagnose problems with all white old men….except for Jindal, who considers himself one….doing ALL the talking. They will never figure out why they lost, because they will never be honest about their loss, and now Franklin Graham is piling on with his religious stuff.
Can ANYBODY make Mitt shut up!!!!!

Oh, I don’t think he’ll be able to impose his will on much of anyone, including that Stepford family of his.

“Romney is being erased with record speed from his party’s books for three reasons. First, many Republicans backed him because they thought he had a good chance of winning; that appeal, obviously, is gone. Second, Romney had shallow roots, and few friends, in the national Republican Party. And those shallow roots have allowed Republicans to give him a new role: As a sort of bad partisan bank, freighted with all the generational positions and postures that they are looking to dump.”

I’ve read quite a few critiques written by conservatives of where they think Romney erred in the campaign, LL, and the one thing all of them keep saying is that he should have won the election because PBO was a weak candidate. This just tells me that all of them embraced the Fox News view of who the president is, and they’re pissed off because a majority of Americans don’t see the president as being weak or as a loser. I think he made excellent lemonade out of the many lemons that the republicans threw at him, and that he accomplished a great deal in his first term against unprecedented opposition to his policies.

These jerks make no sense. Nobody liked him but they were dying for him to be President of the United States. I know what that means in terms of PBO, but it’s still freakin’ crazy.

The GOP is lost and they will stay that way for a long time. Witness their too-numerous-to-mention petitions to secede and their insane stockpiling of guns. The world is not going to change to conform to their ideas. They are in for a world of pain. Romney only symbolized their soulless march toward a clean break with relevance.

I have zero sympathy for Ann “I’m entitled to be first lady” Romney because she was telling just as many lies and selling just as much BS as Willard. They ticked me off when they sat their butts on national TV and told PBO and FL Michelle to “move out of the WH” and buttressed it by saying “It’s our turn.” I knew from that point on that I’d do whatever I could to prevent them from spending one night in the WH as POTUS and FL.

I don’t think there can be any doubt left about his concession speech: he didn’t write a single line of it. It was written by his staff, and he didn’t even believe what he was reading on the prompter. Dishonest till the end.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the top enforcers of the nation’s civil rights laws said Friday that government should be responsible for automatically registering citizens to vote by using existing databases to compile lists of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction.

The proposal by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, follows an election with breakdowns that forced voters in many states to wait in line for hours.

In remarks at George Washington University law school, Perez said census data shows that of 75 million adult citizens who failed to vote in the 2008 presidential election, 60 million were not registered and therefore ineligible to cast a ballot.

Perez says one of the biggest barriers to voting in this country is an antiquated registration system.

President Barack Obama has said the problem must be dealt with and “we in the Justice Department … have already begun discussing ways to address long lines and other election administration problems, whether through proposed legislation, executive action and other policy measures,” Perez said in prepared remarks. He welcomed his audience to contribute suggestions.

“For too many people in our democracy, the act of voting has become an endurance contest,” Perez said. “I used to run marathons; you should not feel like you have endured a marathon when you vote.”

Perez said the current registration system is needlessly complex and forces state and local officials to manually process a crush of new registrations, most handwritten, every election season. This leaves “the system riddled with errors, too often, creating chaos at the polls,” Perez said. “That’s exactly what we saw at a number of polling places on Election Day last week.

“Fortunately, modern technology provides a straightforward fix for these problems — if we have the political will to bring our election systems into the 21st century,” Perez said. “It should be the government’s responsibility to automatically register citizens to vote, by compiling — from databases that already exist — a list of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction. Of course, these lists would be used solely to administer elections — and would protect essential privacy rights.” He did not say which level of government should be responsible for implementing such changes.

“It should be the government’s responsibility to automatically register citizens to vote, by compiling — from databases that already exist — a list of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction.”

I totally concur. I can’t remember ever registering to vote myself, but before each election I get a card in the mail with my polling station and other pertinent info. I suppose they culled the original info from all the (tax) info the government has on me. They probably know how many strands are in my eyelash. /roll/ As a private person, it always ticks me off when I purchase something in certain stores and they ask for my phone #, then pull up all my contact info!

The GOP has always thought that certain Americans are stupid. They keep dressing up their failed policies and anti-American attitudes in new talking points. If they don’t make fundamental policy and attitude changes in the party, imo, they can forget about winning the WH for a number of years. What they’re trying to do is pass the same piece of sh*t off as a new type of chocolate, and I’m not buying it.

Just saw Lincoln. F*******g masterpiece. Also, once upon a time the Republicans were today’s-us and we were today’s-them. We were real jerks. :) And also, I thought of PBO so many times during the movie, that either I completely lost it, or PBO is about to be as great as Lincoln. Probably both….

In terms of character, he’s as great as Lincoln IMO. And like Lincoln, he is more a statesman than a traditional politician.

In terms of accomplishments I hope history will consider Barack Obama as great as Lincoln. If you take into account the complexity of the 21st century world, if you take into account the complexity of the job of POTUS in this modern era, and what President Obama has been able to do already, with all the forces aligned against him, there is a rational argument to put him, ALREADY, on the short list of the GREATEST Presidents.

On November 12, President Obama began a 10-day journey to Asia, which includes visits to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. The purpose of this trip is to strengthen U.S. leadership and economic competitiveness in the region, renew old alliances, forge new partnerships, and make progress on issues that matter to the American people. The trip will include a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings, a Town Hall Event with Chinese youth and a visit to U.S. troops in South Korea.

For the first time, we will offer a travel diary of the trip from various members of the Administration. We’ll post updates, photos and videos to help showcase this historic trip.

Travel Journal
(The Book of) Change Has Come
Posted by Dale Kreisher and Tony Hutchinson on November 19, 2009 at 12:26 PM EST
One striking aspect of President Obama’s visit to China is the excitement it has generated at all social levels throughout the country. Rather than being seen as a dry, political event with little relationship to ordinary people’s lives – as such events often are perceived – President Obama’s trip here has energized Chinese and foreign residents alike.

Beijing is a city of intellectuals, artists, and scholars, with a lively and active arts scene. While the large establishment-supported (and state controlled) “arts industry” flourishes, so too do hundreds of small informal gatherings of artists creating things of beauty for art’s sake.

As the President arrived at Beijing’s airport, miles away, in Beijing’s old city center, in a tiny private theater in a small hutong (alleyway) not far from the Forbidden City, some of Beijing’s top artists celebrated his arrival in a unique way.

Thanks Tally for sharing this. The way Karl Rove angrily protested when Ohio was called for the President tells me that he must have had plans to electronically change the votes in Ohio in favor of Romney. He never explained the basis of his vehement objection when Ohio was called for the President. By the way, he reminded me of what took place in 2000. I was driving from work that night and had my radio on. Exit polls clearly indicated that Al Gore won Florida. In fact I remember both CBS and NBC calling Florida for Gore, before the Bush campaign pushed back and forced the two network to rescind their calls. I am elated that there are people with technical savvy that know how to prevent, or make it difficult for, Rove and his right wing hackers from stealing elections.

I agree that the President, in the end, didn’t need Ohio! But that is beside the point. The issue here is what was Karl Rove and Jon Husted up too. Just because President Obama won this time, we must not take lightly the issues of voter suppression and electronic manipulation of votes. There is absolutely no good reason why software for counting votes should be privately owned by partisan business people. There is also no good reason why there are no strict mechanisms to verify the votes.

When they called Ohio, I went to the store to get champagne. I couldn’t bring myself to until then, because of the 2000/2004 Rove thefts. When I got back in my car to head home, they were saying on the radio that Romney was refusing to concede, and I flashed on Bush in 2000 when they called it for Gore, saying, “Jeb PROMISED ME Florida!” I had the sickest feeling Rove was going to do it again.

Then when I saw Rove’s meltdown, I knew in my bones that between him, and Rick Scott, and Jon Husted, they tried like hell to steal it. I believe every word of this, because it makes Rove’s behavior make complete sense.

“The Republicans have to find some way to calm down the shouts of their shattered tea party. Do they really think that Texas and a dozen other conservative Southern states are winning over the rest of the country by saying they want to secede from the Union? Perhaps Romney and other Republicans can figure that one out after they see the film “Lincoln.””

I doubt if Romney & any Republican still willing to talk to him and the Tea Party could find their way out of a one door room ….

I am not going to pile on. Mostly because my beloved Bruins hoisted USC on its own petard. And because I look smashing today. And wifey and her bff made up, so I have the house to myself after work. And it’s raining. It’s good to be me.

You know Bobfr, Amk shared a very useful election map/site, manned by POLITICO, that I bookmarked. The last time I checked it was last updated on Friday, 11/16. Any way, it has very interesting data, from the 2008/2010 elections, about the level of education, median income, percentage of population receiving income that are below the poverty line, etc. The data clearly support your observation. It’s indeed ironic that in states where the vast majority of people would benefit immensely from the policies of the President and the Democratic party, the vast majority of voters chose to vote for Romney instead of Obama. The author of “What’s the Matter with Kansas” may wish to broaden his discussion to include many states- the so called “Red States” — where the vast majority of people voted for Romney and against their own self interests

The first engineer calls out to the other, “Hey nice bike! Where did you get it?”

“Well,” replies the other, “I was walking to class the other day when this pretty, young coed rides up on this bike. She jumps off, takes off all of her clothes, and says ‘You can have anything you want!'”

At Sydney University, there were four students taking Organic Chemistry. They did so well on all the quizzes, midterms and labs, etc., that each had an “A” so far for the semester. These four friends were so confident with the finals approaching that the weekend before, they decided to go down to Canberra and party with some friends there.

They had a great time. However, after all the hard partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn’t make it back to Sydney until early Monday morning – the morning of their final exam! Rather than taking the final then, they decided to find their professor after the exam and explain to him why they missed it.

They explained that they had gone to Canberra to do some research in the ANU (Australian National University) archives for the weekend with the plan to come back in time to study, but, unfortunately, they had a flat tire on the way back, didn’t have a spare, and couldn’t get help for a long time. As a result, they only just arrived now!

The professor thought it over and then agreed they could make up their final exam the following day. The guys were elated and relieved. They studied hard that night – all night – and went in the next day at the time the professor had told them.

He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a test booklet, (which was out of 100 points) and told them to begin. The first problem was worth five points. It was something simple about free radical formation. Cool, they all thought in their separate rooms, “this is going to be easy.”

Each finished the problem and then turned the page. Question 2 (for 95 points): Which tire?

A lecturer teaching medicine was giving a classoom observation. He took out a jar of yellow liquid. “This,” he explained, “is urine. To be a doctor, you have to be observant of color, smell, sight, and taste.”

After saying so, he dipped his finger into the jar and put it into his mouth. His class watched in amazement, most in disgust. But being the good students that they were, the jar was passed, and one by one, they dipped their finger into the jar and put it into their mouths.

After the last student was done, the lecturer shook his head. “If any of you had been observant, you would have noticed that I put my second finger into the jar and my third finger into my mouth.”

When I went on my trip to Thailand, Myanmar and Laos about ten years ago everything you saw was from China. China seemed to have a lock on trade with those countries. PBO was instrumental in forming an Asian Pacific Trade Partnership during his first term in office that excluded China. I am sure you all remember that when he was working so hard to get more exports for the USA. It is not surprising to me that Thailand will not just automatically sign a trade pact with us when China has been excluded and they have had them as their main trade partner.

PBO is a kind, generous and respectful man. That’s just who he is and a big part of why we admire him so much. He’s the ultimate role model for our kids. We want him to stand firm on the core issues with boner, cantor and crew. I’m sure he will with class and a sunny smile. By the way I agree with you 10000% on the “screw those disgusting assholes” sentiment. But that won’t solve our country’s problems.